Season of Discovery and the future of GW2 character progression

[Caffynated.5713]

1 hour ago, Leger.3724 said:

Is character progression the new euphemism for grind to make it sound better?

I think customizability is a good thing to have as an option but professions are already way too complex, I'm not sure adding more would help attract anyone.

Sure, Season of Discovery might be getting great reviews from active players. But how many are logging back on World of Warcraft and playing regularly now because of it? I doubt it's many beyond your typical expansion pack bump and then slow decline.

Character progression is just that. Expanding the scope of your character's abilities. 

What I'm suggesting, which is somewhat inspired by season of discovery, is the opposite of a grind. In SoD you don't go out and grind for things, you overcome specific challenges, solve puzzles, or uncover mysteries, not unlike players had to do with the secret mounts in PoF (though perhaps less expensive and time consuming as it's not an account unlock). For example, Paladin's Divine Storm unlock required you to defeat some evil wizards, loot a scroll that only Night Elves could read (Night Elves can't be Paladins), recognize the language and get an elf to read it for you, then follow the quest line.  It was a great experience and a lot of fun. 

A Mesmer skill unlock might require something as simple as you have to defeat an instanced version of Liadri The Concealing Dark. 

A more complex chain might see the Fire Elemental world boss drop an item for Elementalists that unlocks achievements with clues that lead you to different locations like Citadel of Flame and the Volcanic fractal (any level) to complete the achievement category and unlock your new skill. Sort of like the Mad Memories backpack unlock chain. 

More likely the unlocks would be content in the new expansion, but these are just references within the existing world for conceptual purposes. 

As far as sustained popularity of SoD goes, I don't think anyone expected the level 25 cap to keep people around and active as their full time game. The important thing is the concept of was popular and well received. 

 

[Kiki.9450]

I like secret hunting. GW2 has kept me occupied with achievements that are all about chasing down hidden things, that's for sure. Should profession skills be locked behind these as awards... Maybe not. I can see people complaining about how the strongest skill for whatever build they just want to play is hidden behind a couple hours of additional gameplay they aren't so interested in, especially if a skill is "meta." (Pretty sure these are some of the issues some players had with SoD, but I didn't read too much into SoD as I'd rather play Retail when it comes to WoW.)

I can also see this as an issue when you consider competitive gameplay modes as well. People will either feel like they're forced to play a gameplay mode they don't like because "my skill is hidden behind this boring PvE stuff" or because "I could do the secrets in PvE but it's faster apparently to grind out the reward track in WvW but I don't like WvW and I need it NAOOOOOO." I'm a big fan of not making people feel like they need to do things they don't like in a video game.

Overall, I like the gameplay aspect of finding hidden goodies, but the rewards should probably remain cosmetic. It could be used as an opportunity to bring in new types of cosmetic rewards, such as spell customization. (Steal WoW's cosmetic glyphs... do it! Then make them better! Mwahahaha!!)